New Zealand’s Key launches exhibit marking Holocaust Remembrance Day

SYDNEY (JTA) — New Zealand Prime Minister John Key, whose mother escaped Europe on the eve of the Holocaust, launched an exhibition to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Key officially opened "Shadows of Shoah" in Auckland at the Raye Freedman Arts Centre last Friday, two days before the remembrance day, in front of Holocaust survivors and Israel’s ambassador to New Zealand, Shemi Tzur.

Key, who rarely talks about his Jewish upbringing, told about 200 people of his mother’s escape from Nazi-controlled Austria in 1938.

The prime minister recalled times his mother was "crying in the corner" after hearing news reports recounting atrocities from the Holocaust, the New Zealand Herald reported.

"People often asked, ‘Why is it that I can’t speak German?’ " Key said. "The simple answer is my mother refused to teach me. She did not want to reflect on her history."

Tzur said the Holocaust "is an issue that is really close to my heart, as it is for many people, and the way New Zealand is taking such a strong interest in teaching about and commemorating the Holocaust is something that should be praised.”

Dan Goldberg is a former national editor of the Australian Jewish News. He currently writes for Haaretz as well as The Jewish Chronicle in Britain. He is also a TV producer and writer for an independent TV production company.